If you’ve mastered the art of ‘sleep hygiene’ at bedtime – drawing the blackout blinds, having a hot bath, meditating for ten minutes and keeping the bedroom for sleep only – yet you’re still plagued by sleepless nights, a new book suggests there may be a little more to it.

Dr Nerina Ramlakhan is a physiologist who has worked with people with sleep problems for two decades and runs the sleep, energy and health programmes at Nightingale Hospital. Having worked with countless stressed and sleep deprived professionals, Dr Ramlakhan has concluded that much of how we sleep at night is governed by our daytime behaviour, from our attitudes to sleep to our diet.

Unhelpful beliefs and subsequent pressures about the perfect night’s sleep, skipping meals, binging on the ‘blue light’ of electronic devices, not taking breaks during the day and dozing off while watching the television are all signals that it may be time to introduce some simple changes to your daily routine that can make all the difference to the quality and length of your sleep, whilst improving your mood and performance during the day.